Magnetic catch



May 3 1960 E. A. HEPPNER 2,935,352

MAGNETIC CATCH Filed June 25, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l.

Fll'i F152 Jodz ZZ .5006

May 3 1960 E. A. HEPPNr-:R 2,935,352

MAGNETIC CATCH Filed June 25, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 j @wif fey,

United States Patent MAGNETIC CATCH Eimere A. Heppner, Round Lake, li., assignor to Heppner Sales Co., a corporation of iiiineis Application June 25, 1954, Serial No. 439,199

8 Claims. (Cl. 292-2515) This invention relates to a catch and more particularly to a magnetic type catch.

It is the general object of this invention to produce a new and improved magnetic catch.

Magnetic catches have become relatively widely adopted for use as a means of holding a closure in a desired position. Primarily catches of this type have been used on cabinet doors to hold the door in closed position. While magnetic catches previously employed have many advantages, their adoption has not been as wide as possible because of certain disadvantages in their construction and operation. Normally a magnetic door catch consists of a permanent magnet mounted in a holder or litting of some form to be secured to a portion of the cabinet such as the underside of a shelf. A steel plate is then fastened to the door portion of the cabinet so that when the door is closed, the plate contacts the magnet to hold the door in closed position.

In order that the door may be held firmly, it is normally necessary that the steel plate be in contact with the entire exposed face of the permanent magnet. As this face, like the face of the plate, is normally a plane surface it was necessary to use a good deal of care in mounting the two parts so that such a face to face contact could be achieved. Even where such care was exercised, the position of the fitting holding the permanent magnet often became slightly displaced in time so that a full length contact between the magnet and plate was no longer obtained. When this occurred the ability of the catch to hold the door closed was greatly lessened.

A further disadvantage of the magnetic catches was that the permanent magnet portion was often damaged or broken when the door carrying the steel plate was slammed or closed with some force and this was particularly true in instances where the tting carrying the magnet was not precisely placed or where the door carrying the plate was somewhat flexible so that the force of rapid closing was imparted to the magnet.

And an additional disadvantage of former magnetic catches was the diihculty and expense of manufacture and assembly which normally required a number of machine and hand operations.

According to the present invention there is provided a magnetic catch which is free of the disadvantages mentioned above. There is disclosed and claimed herein a magnetic catch wherein the permanent magnet assembly is pivotally carried or mounted on its tting so t-at it may be self adjusting to the extent of aligning the exposed linear surface of the assembly with the face of the steel plate so that the proper contact may always be obtained between the magnetic assembly and plate. In addition to being pivotally movable on the fitting the magnet is movable inwardly and outwardly, that is toward and away from the steel plate, thereby permitting the magnetic assembly to move inwardly at any time when the door carrying the plate is closed with some force. ri`hus damage of the type mentioned above may be prevented` In addition the magnetic catch of thepresent inveniCC tion is simple and inexpensive to fabricate and materials of lesser expense may be used in its construction.

Other and further features and advantages of the present invention will be readily `apparent from the following description and drawings in which:

Fig. l is a side elevational view of the magnetic catch of the present invention showing a step in the installation of the device;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view along line 2 2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the portion of the magnetic catch shown in Fig. 1 and taken along line 3-3 thereof;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken along line l-d of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is an exploded View illustrating the various parts ot the present device;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the steel plate'to be used with the magnetic catch;

Fig. 7 is a view like Fig. l showing the modied form of construction;

Eig. 8 is a view like Fig. 2 showing the modified construction;

Fig. 9 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 9 9 of Fig. 7;

Fig. l0 is an enlarged vertical sectional View of the catch of Fig. 7; and

Fig. ll is an exploded view of the modified form of catch.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail several specific embodiments, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplilication of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiments illustrated. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring now to Figs. l-6 of the drawings, the magnetic catch of the present invention is shown as including a iitting iii preferably of a single piece of sheet metal or other material which is readily formed or shaped and possesses at least some resiliency. The iitting is provided at two sides with two leg portions i?, and 13, each provided with elongated slots id to recei/e screw devices or nails i5 to secure the tting to a support 16 such as a portion of a cabinet. Intermediate the leg portions 12 and 13 the fitting is bent to form a housing 17 having live sides 17a-He. The housing 17 denes a hexahedral chamber i8 therein open on one side and closed on the other ve sides bythe rive sided housing.

The chamber 1S is designed to receive a magnetic assembly 2t? therein. The magnetic assembly includes a pair of substantially rectangular plates 21 and 22 forming pole pieces of the assembly and the magnetic assembly also includes a permanent magnet 23 preferably made in the shape of the hexahedral block shown. As previously pointed out, because of the particular ccnstruction and arrangement of the magnetic catch of this invention, damage to the magnetic assembly may be prevented and because of this it is possible to employ a permanent magnet 23 made of lesscostly material, for example, powdered ferrie material pressed into a block and then magnetized, such material being well known as ferrite. Obviously other forms of permanently magnetizable material may be used, such as alnico. Each pole piece 21 and 22 has on one face thereof an loutstruclt lug 25 and 26 which lugs may be formed on a punch or similar machine. The lugs .25 and 26 are engageable in elongated openings 27 and 28 formed in the sides17a and i717 of the housing 17.

Each pole piece, on the side opposite :the face from which the lugs 25 and 26 are outstruck, is provided with means for retaining the magnet 23 Vin position, the re-Y taining means taking the form on each pole piece of a pair of outstruck lugs 29a and 29b and 30a and 30b.

In assembling the portion of the magnetic catch so far described, the pole pieces 21 and 22 are placed against opposite faces of the permanent magnet 23 and of course are held thereon by magnetism. The pole pieces are so positioned that the lugs 29a and 2% on the pole piece 21 and the lugs 30a and 3% on the pole piece 22 are positioned just beyond and contact the outer face of the magnet 23 such as illustrated in Fig. 4. The magnetic assembly including the pole pieces and magnet is then inserted into the chamber 18 through the open face thereof. Because of the fact that the fitting is made of somewhat resilient material, the opposed sides 17a and 17b of the housing may yield during the insertion of the magnetic assembly until the lugs 2S and 26 engage and extend into the openings 27 and 28.

With the device so assembled the magnetic assembly is firmly held within the housing 17. The permanent magnet 23 cannot slip out of the open face of the charnber because of the presence of the lugs 29a and 29b and 30a and 30b and the pole pieces themselves are held within the chamber by engagement of their lugs 25 and 26 with the openings. From the foregoing it will be apparent vthat final assembly of the magnetic catch thus far described is an extremely simple operation and after manual insertion of the magnetic assembly into the chamber 18, no further operations such as clamping or stamping are required to ensure retention of the assembly in position.

As seen in Figs. 3 and 4, each of the pole pieces 21 and 22 is provided with an outer substantially linear edge portion 21a and 22a which is positioned outwardly of the housing 17 so as to contact a plate 31. This plate is provided with an opening 32 for the reception of a screw device 33 to hold the plate to another support 34 which may be therdoor of the cabinet. The plate 31 may be recessed into the support 34 as shown in Fig. 4 or may merely overlie the surface thereof, as desired.

Alignment of the plate 31 with the tting 10 is simply achieved. After the fitting has been installed on the support 16, it is slightly adjustable toward and away from the opening therein because of the existence of the slots 14 and when nally positioned, the magnetic assembly may be used to hold a simple tack 35 whose point protrudes outwardly toward the exact location where the hole for the screw 33 should be drilled. Thus with the tack 35 centered on the edges 21a and 22a, the support 34, if it be a door, may be closed against the point of the tack. Upon re-opening the door, an indentation at the location of the tack point will indicate the location Vfor the drilled hole.

In operation it will be apparent that the magnetic assembly may pivot within the housing so that the entire length of the edge portions 21a and 22a of the pole pieces may contact the flat face of the plate 31 thus ensuring strong magnetic adherence between the parts. Should the fitting 1Q become slightly misaligned or should warpage in the supports 16 and 34 occur., the magnetic assembly is, in effect, self adjusting so as to permit such contact between the end of the pole pieces and the plate. Furthermore, it will be noted that the openings 27 and 28 in the housing are elongated in a direction normal to the extent of the edge portions 21a and 22a so that the entire magnetic assembly may shift rearwardly, that is away from the plate 31, should the closure 34 be slammed against the support 16. Thus the magnetic assembly may give in response to shock and damage to the assembly is thereby prevented. Y

Referring now to the modied form of catch shown in Figs. 7-11 the catch includes a fitting 46 formed of a single piece of sheet metal to have a bottom wall 40a, a rear wall 40h and a top wall 40e, with the three walls Ydefining an open ended and open sided chamber. The

tting 40 is provided with a first leg portion 41 having slots 42 therein and a second leg portion 43 having slots 44 with the slots being adapted to receive screw devices for holding the catch to a support.

The magnetic assembly to be held in the chamber includes a permanent magnet 45 in the shape of a hex-ahedral block of compressed powdered ferrie material and provided with an opening 45a therein. Contacting opposed faces of the permanent magnet is a pair of pole pieces 46 -and 47,"each provided with an opening 46a and 47a' therein. The openings 45a, 46a and 47a are aligned to receive a rivet 48 extending through aligned openings in the walls 40a and #we so that the magnetic assembly may pivot within the chamber for the reasons previously described. When the magnetic assembly is freely pivotable within its chamber, occasionally the catch will become somewhat noisy in operation due to the loose itting of the various parts of the magnetic assembly and, for this purpose, the modied form of invention is provided with means for damping or resisting the pivotal movement of the magnetic assembly so as to reduce noise in operation. In the embodiment of the invention chosen for illustration the damping means comprises a leaf spring member 50 having an opening 50a therein aligned with the other openings previously mentioned so that the rivet 48,may be inserted therethrough. The damping means 50, being in the form of a leaf spring, serves not only to brake or resist pivotal movement of the magnetic assembly, but also serves to hold the parts having magnetic assembly rmly together after they have been inserted between the faces 40a and 40C.

To assist in aligning the openings in the permanent magnet pole pieces and leaf spring the openings therein are made successively larger as can be seen from the drawings. In a specic form of the invention the openings in the sides 40a and 40C are each .13() inch, the opening in the leaf spring 50 is approximately .140 inch, that in the pole pieces 46 and 47 are .156 inch and the opening 45a in the permanent magnet is 716 inch. If desired, the openings in the sides 43a and 40C may be elongated in the manner of the openings 27 and 28, previously described, to -permit the magnetic assembly to move inwardly under the force imposed in closing the door against the catch.

I claim:

l. A magnetic catch device comprising a tting having a chamber therein; a magnetic assembly in the chamber, said magnetic assembly being smaller than the chamber and including a permanent magnet and a pair of pole pieces in contact with opposite sides of the magnet with each of said pole pieces extending adjacent a side of the chamber and terminating in a linear edge portion positioned exteriorly of the chamber and parallel to the corresponding edge portion of the other pole piece; a lug outstruck from each pole piece and extending into an opening elongated ina direction normal to said edge portions and formed in the adjacent side of the chamber to secure the pole pieces in the chamber for independent pivotal movement Vin the chamber and for limited movement normally of said edge portions.

2. A magnetic catch device comprising a fitting having a chamber therein; a magneticrassembly in the chamber, said magnetic assembly being smaller than the chamber and including a permanent magnet and a pair of pole pieces in contact with opposite sides of the magnet with each of said pole pieces extending adjacent a side of the chamber and terminating in a linear edge por1 tion positioned exteriorly ofthe chamber and parallel tc ing members outstruck from each pole piece and contacting the magnet to retain the magnet in said chamber.

3. A magnetic catch device comprising a iitting formed of a single piece of sheet metal having spaced portions adapted to be secured to a support, said tting having a portion intermediate said spaced portions bent to form a ve-Walled housing defining a hexahedral chamber openon one side, a pair of substantially rectangular pole pieces within the chamber each having an outstruck lug on one face thereof engaging openings formed in opposed Walls of said housing and each pole piece extending outwardly of the chamber through said open side thereof and terminating in a substantially linear edge positioned exteriorly of the chamber, a substantially hexahedral permanent magnet in the chamber and positioned intermediate and spacing apart said pole pieces, and other outstruck lugs formed on the opposite faces of said pole pieces and extending partially across the face of said magnet adjacent said open side of the chamber to retain said magnet in said position.

4. A magnetic catch device comprising a iitting having a chamber therein; a magnetic assembly in the chamber, said magnetic assembly being smaller than the chamber and including a permanent magnet element and a pair of pole piece elements in contact with opposite sides of the magnet element With each of said pole piece elements extending adjacent a side of the chamber and terminating in a linear edge portion positioned exteriorly of the chamber and parallel to the corresponding edge portion of the other pole piece element; and a member extending through aligned openings in the tting, pole piece elements, and magnet element independently pivotally securing the elements of the magnetic assembly in the chamber.

5. The magnetic catch of claim 4 in which said member comprises a rivet and in which the openings in said iitting, pole pieces, and magnet are of diierent diameter with the diameter of the opening in the fitting being the smallest and the diameter of the opening in the magnet being the largest.

6. A magnetic catch comprising a iittng having a chamber therein and adapted to be secured to a support, a magnetic assembly Within the chamber, said magnetic assembly being smaller than the chamber and including a permanent magnet member and a pair of pole pieces, one in contact with each side of the magnet member and with said pole pieces having parallel linear end portions positioned exteriorly of the chamber, said permanent magnet member and pole pieces being provided with aligned openings therein, a retaining pin secured in the fitting and extending through said aligned openings With the pin having a diameter less than the diameter of the openings to permit said magnetic assembly to pivot within the chamber, `and damping means within said chamber and yieldably resisting pivotal movement of the magnetic assembly therein whereby said magnet assembly may pivot on the tting to permit said end portions to move into contact with an armature plate.

7. The magnetic catch of claim 6 in which said damping means comprises a leaf spring interposed between a side of the chamber and one of said pole pieces.

8. A magnetic latch comprising a housing adapted to be mounted on a supporting surf-ace and having an open end, a hat magnetic holding member disposed in the housing and having its pole faces extending outwardly through said open end, and a support fixed to said housing and retaining said holding member within said housing, said support extending through said holding member interiorly of the housing Vand permitting limited reciprocal and oscillatory movement of the holding member.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,240,035 Catherall Apr. 29, 1941 2,508,305 Teetor May 16, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 607,148 Great Britain Aug. 26, 1948 

